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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (9417)	11/6/1999 5:09:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12475

US wants India to go with begging bowl for Orissa San Francisco: Washington appears to be sending clear signals that if New Delhi needs monetary assistance or relief supplies for the cyclone-ravaged Orissa, it had better ask. This stance has created ripples of outrage among Indians and pro-India Congressmen here who interpret these signals as being "a clear indicator from Washington that India must hold out a begging bowl to the US," a highly-placed source in Washington told this correspondent on condition of anonymity. When informed about this, a senior minister in Vajpayee's government in New Delhi rejected outright any probability of New Delhi turning to Washington for cyclone relief.The Minister felt the large population of Indians living in the US could, if motivated for this cause, collect funds which would easily outweigh America's present cyclone aid to India. Meanwhile, ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee and a noted India backer in Washington Sam Gejdenson, in a letter to President Clinton, pointed out that the recent $ 2.1 million relief provided by the US to Orissa was already part of an earlier aid package for India.Gejdenson pointed out that "the $ 2.1 million assistance is not a new resource but assistance already designated for India." Clinton had announced his government's decision to provide more than $ 2 million worth of food and $1 lakh worth of tents and plastic sheeting to help alleviate the hunger and immediate suffering for the people of Orissa. Urging President Clinton to send the US envoy Richard Celeste to the cyclone-affected parts of Orissa to assess the situation and report back, Gejdensen felt this was the only way America would get a true picture of the devastation. The India lobby here has reacted sharply to what it describes as being Washington's neglect of one of the world's most devastating natural calamities."Following the earthquake in Turkey, relief supplies from the US were astronomical. Relief and rescue teams were sent from Fairfax. Aid to India, in comparison, is but a drop in the ocean," Shreekanta Nayak, general secretary of the National Council of Asian Indian Associations, told this correspondent from Washington. Sources in Washington said while the White House was open to extending more relief to India, there were many who were eager to trip up such proposals. Hardline Republicans had successfully managed to downsize a proposal to provide a sum in the vicinity of $100 million in cyclone relief to India. The Republicans had justified their action on the grounds that Orissa's recent history of violence against Christian missionaries had lost it the opportunity to benefit from the aid. deccan.com